In order to prevent the next 38 Studios, Primack says politicians need to stop playing at being venture capitalists.

“Most professional venture capitalists lose money, so why would amateurs in political office do any better?” asked Primack in his article “4 lessons from Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios fiasco.”

If politicians insist on pretending to be venture capitalists, then they should share in the risk, said Primack, adding that “the most egregious part” of Rhode Island’s $75 million loan guarantee to 38 Studios was that it required no validation from outside investors.

Comments

There is nothing wrong with Curt schilling trying to live his dream and attempting to finance it as best as he can.Clearly he had some poor financial advice or ignored it. He is allowed to do that.....some of history's greatest successes occurred when people took huge chances with their own money as well as that of others. RI should not be in the business of financing companies of that size and risk.The upside for was unclear at best. That being said, one big issue in 38 studios was the issue of disclosure. Its clear to me that there was not an adequate vetting process before the loan was guaranteed and unfortunately the monitoring of the loan was deeply flawed as well. The whole thing will be investigated for public corruption and we will likely find there were conflicts of interest. I don't believe Mr Carcieri was at fault and I hope we find out the truth soon enough so that we can refocus efforts on legislative misconduct regarding the Institute of Sport where there appears to be outright fraud across multiple state lines.

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